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An I-donīt-know-what-to-say student

Hi!
I''ve been facing this problem with one of my private student for more than a year. Whenever I ask her a question she'd only answer "yes" or "no", and if the question is an open one, she'd give a very short answer or just say "I don't know". I thought that her problem was that she had a poor level of English, but she's improved a lot now and she should be able to have a long conversation in English. I know that she's a shy person, but it's only the two of us in the classrooom, there are no more students. Besides, we have a lot o confidence among ourselves because we've been seeing each other twice a week for more than a year. She very intelligent and has got high marks, but she seems unable to speak. She's a teenager and her mother made very clear that she wants her daughter to learn how to speak, she doesn't care about the rest, and I have the feeling that I'm teaching her everything except to have a conversation!
Have you got any sound piece of advice advice to give me? How can we solve the problem of "I donīt know what to say"?

Re: An I-donīt-know-what-to-say student

This is an interesting problem. I think everyone faces a similar difficulty at some point. It might be helpful if you could share a few more details about this particular case so we can try to find a clearer cause. For example, what kind of speaking lessons have you tried with her? What kind of questions have you asked, and in what context? When she doesn't speak as you expect, what do you do? Can you walk us through a very typical example of the kind of conversation you've tried to have with her?

Re: An I-donīt-know-what-to-say student

I also encounter such problem with some of my students. What I do is I tell them that I don't like the answer and I ask them to provide some more and to speak longer for them to improve their conversational skills more. It's not easy to ask them to talk more, but the best thing for them to do it is to push them to do so and in that case , they will get use to it and they will know what you want too. After all, you are the teacher and you have the right to ask them to talk more. :)